Photographically illustrated books about Hawai'i, 1854–1945

Abstract

This bibliography surveys books and pamphlets about Hawai'i with photographic illustrations. The first book illustration (from a daguerreotype) was an engraved portrait of the heir to the Hawaiian throne, Alexander Liholiho, published in 1854. The bibliography ends with the close of the Second World War in the Pacific in 1945. From the 1850s the US government was increasingly interested in Hawai‘i’s strategic location. The Hawaiian Islands, located 2500 miles off the California coast, were the winter port for the American whaling fleet in the 1840s and 1850s. The discovery of gold in California in 1849 brought Americans to the West Coast, and by 1853 there were covert discussions about the possible annexation of the islands by the United States.